HAMPSHIRE county and Hart district councils are asking people to keep helping clean their communities as part of the ‘Clean for the Queen’ campaign.

The ongoing campaign has been set up to give towns and villages up and down the country a spring clean ahead of the monarch’s 90th birthday.

The county council’s executive member for culture, recreation and countryside, Andrew Gibson, said: “Clean for the Queen is a great way to give the county that extra special spring clean in time for the Queen’s 90th birthday. Everyone has a responsibility to keep their local community tidy, and this campaign provides a fantastic opportunity for everyone to join in, protect our countryside and improve the quality of our public spaces.”

At the launch of the campaign, more than a million people were out cleaning across the country in March, including more than 50 people in Hartley Wintney.

The weekend clean-up, from March 4-5, saw 48 bin liners filled with litter across the district.

Steve Forster, cabinet member for technical services at Hart District Council, said: “Clean for the Queen is about everyone working together to give the country a big spring clean ahead of Her Majesty’s birthday and Hartley Wintney came out in force to support it.

“It was fabulous to receive the support of the Rotary Club of Hart, and that our MP, Ranil Jayawardena, also joined us. I’m delighted that we were able to remove 48 bags worth of litter from the streets and countryside in Hartley Wintney.”

Statistics show that 2.25 million pieces of litter are dropped every day in the UK, with 30 million tonnes of rubbish collected from England’s streets each year, enough to fill Wembley Stadium four times over, and costing councils across the UK close to £1bn to clean up.

Clean for the Queen campaign director Adrian Evans said: “On behalf of the campaign, I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Hart District Council and the people of Hart for supporting Clean for the Queen.”

Winchfield is hosting its Clean for the Queen event on April 10, with the Odiham Society clean-up taking place on June 4-5.